Mom’s spring spirits

There isn’t a wo­man in the world who could take her place. She’s uni­ver­sal, yet she’s sin­gu­lar, per­son­al, spe­cial and unique.

She can come in any size or shape, wear lin­en and lace, or be an an­gel in blue jeans. She can turn frowns in­to smiles, some­times with just a hug or a cook­ie. Grown men can be re­duced to little boys by her smil­ing coun­ten­ance. She can be a pro­tect­or, pro­vider, pal, cook, coach, teach­er, ment­or, dis­cip­lin­ari­an, nose-blower and more.

Her greatest strengths are in her many sac­ri­fices. She’ll al­ways love you — in spite of … whatever. She has a spe­cial beauty that wrinkles or gray­ing hair can nev­er take away. She can’t be bought or re­placed, and al­though there are mil­lions of them, she’s one in a mil­lion to you. She doesn’t need an in­tro­duc­tion, for you know her well. She’s your Moth­er.

The of­fi­cial day set aside to hon­or your Mom is this Sunday. Did you know the ori­gin of Moth­er’s Day has Phil­adelphia roots? Fin­an­cial back­ing for the day came from Phil­adelphia de­part­ment store own­er John Wana­maker. The idea to hon­or her moth­er was first con­ceived in 1908 by Anna Jar­vis. She re­ceived both fin­an­cial and polit­ic­al help from the well-con­nec­ted former Post Mas­ter Gen­er­al, Wana­maker. Jar­vis cam­paigned suc­cess­fully to make Moth­er’s Day a re­cog­nized hol­i­day. In 1914, Pres­id­ent Woo­drow Wilson made it of­fi­cial – 100 years ago this Fri­day.

A card, flowers, chocol­ates, per­fume and jew­elry – all are nice gifts. But how about mak­ing your Mom a spe­cial liba­tion? Make two to share, sip, and spend some Mom-time.

Al­though moth­ers can be as dif­fer­ent as night and day, al­most all of them like straw­ber­ries. Moth­er Nature has just de­livered a bounty of beau­ti­ful ber­ries to our mar­kets on sched­ule, and in time to make a Moth­er’s Day treat. What Moth­er could res­ist sip­ping a Frozen Straw­berry Dai­quiri on her spe­cial day, es­pe­cially a spe­cial drink made for her by one of her “darlings?”

The fol­low­ing re­cipe is de­li­cious and easy to make, even if you con­sider the kit­chen to be a for­eign land. What’s more, if your Mom has a second serving, she will have had enough straw­ber­ries to ful­fill her day’s quota of Vit­am­in C. Straw­ber­ries are low in cal­or­ies, sup­ply fiber, and con­tain good an­ti­ox­id­ant prop­er­ties.

A long-stemmed, globe-shaped glass really makes a spec­tac­u­lar Frozen Dai­quiri present­a­tion. To be­gin, dip the rim of the glass (about 1/8-inch high) in a shal­low sau­cer of wa­ter. Then dip the rim in gran­u­lated sug­ar. Re­fri­ger­ate or freeze the glass while you pre­pare the frozen dai­quiri.

- Con­tin­ue to run blender un­til drink be­comes a de­li­cious mound of straw­ber­ries and ground ice.

- Makes two servings.

- Serve with a straw.

Note: This drink is equally de­li­cious without rum. Just sub­sti­tute 1½ ounces of or­ange juice for the rum. Chil­dren also love this icy berry de­light.

If your Mom is just not a Frozen Straw­berry Dai­quiri girl, or is al­ler­gic to straw­ber­ries (per­ish the thought), make her a Mar­gar­ita. Again, to be­gin, dip the rim of the glass (about 1/8-inch high) in a shal­low sau­cer of wa­ter, then dip the rim in­to salt.

FROZEN MAR­GAR­ITAS

Ice

1 (6-oz.) can of frozen limeade con­cen­trate

¾ cup tequila

¾ cup triple sec

A splash of Cham­bord (about 2 tsp.)

- Fill your blender with ice.

- Pour in limeade, tequila, triple sec, and Cham­bord.

- Blend well.

Makes 4 servings.

If you prefer your Mar­gar­ita on the rocks, blend all in­gredi­ents ex­cept ice. Then pour in­to a glass filled with ice cubes.

Happy Moth­er’s Day to all who an­swer the call – “Moth­er!”

Love you, Mom.

Eat well, live long, en­joy!

(Ques­tions or tips can be sent to Donna Zit­ter Bor­de­lon at Whats­cook­in­NEPhilly@gmail.com or in care of the North­east Times, 2512 Met­ro­pol­it­an Drive, Tre­vose, PA 19053)